Plot
Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 7.3/10 (53,880 voted)
Critic's Score: 74/100
Director:
Patty Jenkins
Stars: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern
Storyline A dark tale based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers. Wuornos had a difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan. She became a prostitute by the age of thirteen, the same year she became pregnant. She eventually moved to Florida where she began earning a living as a highway prostitute--servicing the desires of semi-truck drivers. The tale focuses on the nine month period between 1989 and 1990, during which Wuornos had a lesbian relationship with a woman named Selby. And during that very same time, she also began murdering her clientele in order to get money without using sex. This turned the tables on a rather common phenomena of female highway prostitutes being the victims of serial killers--instead Wuornos, herself, carried out the deeds of a cold-blooded killer.
Cast: Charlize Theron
-
Aileen
Christina Ricci
-
Selby
Bruce Dern
-
Thomas
Lee Tergesen
-
Vincent Corey
Annie Corley
-
Donna
Pruitt Taylor Vince
-
Gene
/
Stuttering "John"
Marco St. John
-
Evan
/
Undercover "John"
Marc Macaulay
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Will
/
Daddy "John"
Scott Wilson
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Horton
/
Last "John"
Rus Blackwell
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Cop
Tim Ware
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Chuck
Stephan Jones
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Lawyer
Brett Rice
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Charles
Kaitlin Riley
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Teenage Aileen
Cree Ivey
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7-Year-Old Aileen
Opening Weekend: $86,831
(USA)
(28 December 2003)
(4 Screens)
Gross: $60,378,584
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Charlize Theron won the academy award for playing Aileen Wuornos on 29 February 2004, Aileen Wuornos's birthday.
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
When Aileen Wuornos fills out a job application, she writes her name as "Wournos, Lee C." The correct spelling is "Wuornos."
Quotes:
[first lines]
Aileen:
I always wanted to be in the movies...
User Review
I knew Aileen.
Rating: 10/10
Why would someone want to be comment number 458? Because it might mean
something to somebody. This movie meant a lot to me.
I spent about four hours, sole-to-sole, in the back of a pickup truck
hitch hiking with her and a friend of mine in Florida. This was before
she had killed anybody, I believe.
Years later, I saw the "wanted" drawing. It sort of rang a bell, but a
lot of usual suspects look like that, don't they? What are the chances?
Then, they caught her and showed the first photo, then gave both the
nickname (like a cousin), and the real name (like another cousin, only
spelled in Irish.) At the time, she mentioned the spelling with an "A."
I asked her if she was Irish and told her about my two cousins. What a
small world, right? She either told me her last name and I assumed it,
or told me she was Greek. The point being, the whole name aspect was
the first part of a four hour life story discussion we had. And you
don't forget four hours of a face like that either. The life stories
matched. It was her.
The mood swings Charlize Theron portrays are perfect, as are the
mannerisms, body language, clothes, teeth, complexion, hair, the body
fat, manner of speaking, that strutting walk and just everything. It
was absolutely uncanny. You never forget someone like that, and then
when they pop up alive like that again. It was just unreal.
She was mood swinging, or perhaps "cycling," the whole time I was with
her. I imagine if that was portrayed realistically, the movie would be
unwatchable. I remember thinking at the time, her behavior seemed like
the popular portrayal of those "possessed."
After I saw Monster more than twenty years later, I called the other
guy that was with me. We have remained friends over the years. I told
him "Oscar this, Oscar that," blah blah blah, just out of the shock of
reliving the experience of Aileen again. The fact that she was played
by the glamorous, beautiful, Charlize Theron on top of it, was beyond
all comprehension. What a transformation! Of course, my beloved,
goof-ball buddy was sitting beside her sleeping most of the time in the
truck. His head kept on falling on her shoulder and she would push it
off. It was like Three Stooges. They shared the Doritos like it was the
school cafeteria or something. Can you imagine, in hindsight? Yes, it
is good for a few jokes, I admit it. She hadn't killed anyone yet, so
far as I can tell from reading about her and piecing the time-line back
together. This was the first and only time I had been in Florida in
those college-age days, so putting that together was fairly easy.
I don't know if I ever met anyone, before or since, that I have felt
more sympathy for at the time. She was very talkative, about herself
and the hard times she'd had. She was believable. She wasn't scamming
us or anything, as I first suspected, just shooting the breeze. I
wanted to cry for her. I think I even did so later, in hindsight. She
was unreal. She had, what I thought, were "multiple personalities."
Really just two, she would laugh one second, cry the next. She was like
a big, tough hard-ass girl of eight years. She told me all about her
childhood abuse, the horror of being a prostitute, and taking beatings
and abuse from the men. She mentioned living in hotels. She didn't seem
like too much of a drinker or a druggie. I just thought she was deeply,
emotionally disturbed. In those days, we should have said "mental." My
friend and I were a couple of happy middle-class college snowbird guys
on Christmas break. She had about the worst kind of life of anyone I
had ever met. She was only about four or five years older than us, but
looked twice her age. When I thought later about the hand she was
dealt, compared to mine, you better believe the religious feelings and
tears well up. They still do. I can't bear to watch the movie
sometimes, or at least parts of it.
Yes, what she did was wrong, if not evil. I don't think she was evil
though, at all. She had the innocence lost, naive but semi-funny
sweetness portrayed in the movie. I don't usually contemplate these
things, its just that you could see there was a good person there, just
profoundly _____ed up. For some reason, I was proud of her when she
wanted the execution. She was nothing if not honest. As an outside
observer, I don't know how you feel sorry for someone like that, but if
you knew what happened, you just might. I have no agenda in that
regard. Watch this and ask yourself if monsters are made, or are they
born? This movie captures my feelings perfectly. If you have read this
far, you can see the conflict. The movie reflects that so well, I can
not do it justice by praising it with words.
If you were a victim of her actions, I wouldn't blame you for hating
what I'm writing. If I read something like this about Charlie Manson,
I'd never believe it.
I just want to thank everyone involved in telling this bizarre story.
I would advise people to see this if they want to be challenged, not
just entertained. I've read some of the headlines on the index. So
should you.
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